Thursday, March 15, 2012

Recently, my friend Yuliya and I threw ourselves a Hunger Games birthday party. She did a wonderful job recapping the highlights from our Tribute themed get-together, which you can see HERE.

The best part of the party was undoubtedly the food. We had been collecting menu ideas on our Pinterest board. Fictional Food was a fun resource for our literary eats come to life. The item that caught my culinary eye was Peeta's goat cheese and apple tart. There were a few versions of the recipe, but I wanted to make one big pie to share rather than individual tarts so I made some modifications. The result was rather scrumptious and worthy of being made as a dessert for non Hunger Games functions. The goat cheese is a rich surprise complimented by the cinnamon apples on top. Here is the first "real" food recipe I've shared on my blog!

Ingredients:

-1 frozen pie crust, thawed (I used a Trader Joe's pre-made frozen crust. If you have a tried and true crust recipe, feel free to use it, just leave it unbaked.)

-1 egg wash comprised of one egg beaten with 2 Tbs water

Apple Topping:

-4 cups diced apples (I used Gala but other varieties would probably work just fine.)

- 1 cup sugar

-1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs cornstarch

-1 tsp cinnamon

-1 pinch salt

-1 pinch nutmeg (or apple pie spice)

-3 cups water

This will yield more cinnamon apples than you need for your tart but the leftovers are a delicious treat on their own!

-Next comes the apple filling. Put the 3 cups water in a large sauce pan. Add dry ingredients to the water and heat over medium heat, stirring well to combine. Add the diced apples once the cinnamon sauce starts to thicken just a little. Cook apples, stirring constantly, for about ten minutes.

-Now, get your oven pre-heating to 350 degrees.

-Time for the goat cheese filling! Using a stand mixer (or a whisk if you feel like it), combine goat cheese, cream cheese, sugar and honey. Mix until smooth and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Scrap the bowl and add the vanilla. Beat until well combined.

-Once you have your creamy cheese filling, pour it into the prepared crust. It should fill the pie between half and two thirds full. Bake the cheese filling and crust in the oven for 30 minutes or until the center has a soft set.

-After the half hour of baking, remove the tart and spoon apple filling over the top. If the apple completely sinks, bake for 5 more minutes at a time until the center can support the apples. The apple doesn't need to completely cover the top, I left some goat cheesy goodness visible on the edges. Leftover apple filling can be refrigerated and reheated.

-Return pie to the oven and cook an additional 20-25 minutes. If the crust starts to get too golden, loosely cover with foil. Allow to cool then refrigerate, I left mine in over night. Serve cold from the fridge or room temperature, if you can stand to let it sit around that long before diving into it.

Oh, I wish I had another one of these so I could eat it for breakfast. No joke, it's that good.

Stay tuned for a tutorial for these hand made wine charms I put together for our party:

About Me

I'm Brittany, a stay-at-home mommy to my son Asher. When I'm not busy sewing, we practice attachment parenting and I'm a big fan of homebirth, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, baby wearing, Elimination Communication, and cloth diapering (when not ECing). If you have non-felt food related questions about any of these things, please ask! You can contact me at mama@mamasfeltcafe.com